3PAR Delivers Autonomic Storage Tiering for High-end Arrays

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3PAR, a utility storage provider, has introduced 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software for autonomic, sub-volume storage tiering with 3PAR InServ F-Class and T-Class Storage Servers. The company also announced support for the STEC MACH8IOPS Solid State Drive (SSD), a new class of cost- and power-efficient SSDs. 3PAR has now delivered autonomic storage tiering for enterprise and cloud data centers. The combination of 3PAR Adaptive Optimization, 3PAR SSDs, and the massively parallel, highly virtualized InServ Storage Server allows 3PAR customers to meet service-level targets for approximately 30 percent lower cost than with Fibre Channel drives alone.

3PAR’s autonomic, fine-grained approach to service level optimization was designed to reduce enterprise and cloud data center costs by delivering the right quality of service (QoS) to the right data at the right time, non-disruptively and on an ongoing basis. Adaptive optimization takes place at the sub-volume level, so InServ arrays using SSDs require fewer of these premium drives to meet even the most stringent performance targets. With 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software, InServ arrays can achieve desired service levels by combining multiple storage tiers -- using any combination of SSD, Fibre Channel, and Nearline (enterprise SATA) drives -- within a single volume for a lower overall cost per gigabyte than Fibre Channel-only configurations.

The combination of 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software and SSDs uniquely capitalizes on several key features built into the highly virtualized 3PAR InSpire Architecture. These features include: a built-in, sub-volume data movement engine; a mesh-active cluster that works with wide striping to balance the high performance of SSD resources across all controllers, CPUs, and ports; a caching architecture for tiered storage that has been enhanced for SSDs; and extensive historical reporting capabilities.

3PAR Adaptive Optimization was designed to help organizations achieve the most efficient distribution of data over the application lifecycle without administrator intervention. The software intelligently monitors sub-volume level performance, then applies user-configurable policies that autonomically and non-disruptively rebalance a workload across tiers to continually and flexibly meet changing application demands. At the same time, Adaptive Optimization minimizes the risk of user-level impact through non-disruptive, sub-volume data movement technology, which has been proven over years of use, coupled with administrator controls that incorporate additional policy override mechanisms.

3PAR Adaptive Optimization software also includes quality-of-service gradients that can be used to bias data movement within a profile based on specific performance or cost objectives. A QoS gradient accelerates or decelerates data movement toward a particular class of resources so the user can better meet service level and cost objectives. For example, a performance gradient can be used for data with high service level demands, such as a seasonal order management application. As workloads begin to spike (such as when Black Friday or Cyber Monday approaches), the gradient will rapidly and autonomically move data to high performance resources and maintain it there until after the activity has declined.

3PAR Adaptive Optimization software is orderable immediately. SSDs for the 3PAR InServ will be available next quarter and are compatible with all InServ F-Class and T-Class arrays running the latest version of the 3PAR InForm Operating System. 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software is an optional product that starts at $1,400 and requires 3PAR System Reporter software, version 2.7 or above. Pricing for SSDs starts at $22,400 per InServ array.